Well? Raging appetite getting out of control lately as pants are getting stressed beyond design limits. Drugs, hypnosis, cult affiliation? What works?
IANAD (I am not a dietician), but are you eating a lot of empty carbs? You know, stuff like white bread and sugar and soda and cookies and pasta and stuff? An increasingly popular medical opinion is that these foods spike your blood sugar, and the corresponding blood sugar crash causes your body to release the hunger chemicals. 'Cause, your body is freaking out that it’s losing energy so fast that it demands more food NOW.
So, you might try cutting out empty carbs and increasing the protein and veggies. The South Beach Diet is a pretty good guide for that.
If this doesn’t apply, then I don’t know what to tell ya. See a doctor?
Yeah, thats called glycemic index. Another way to lower glycemic index and decrease appetite it to eat alot of protein, fiber, and unsaturated fats. these all slow down digestion keeping blood sugar stable.
Right. A lot of people say “Oh, those low-carb diets are a lot of bunk. A calorie is a calorie is a calorie,” but what they’re not grasping is the following:
a) A healthy diet isn’t low-carb, it’s low-glycemic. Vegetables are all carb and they’re great for you.
and
b) It’s not necessarily the composition of the calories that makes you gain weight (thought there is sound science supporting that, too), it’s the fact that* empty calories make you hungrier so you take in more calories than you should.*
Food?
Sorry, couldn’t resist the easy answer.
All carb??? where do vegetable oils come from?
Eat a big salad. The fiber in the greens will diminish your appetite. All veggies have a lot of carbs, fiber being a carb, but not 100% carb.
Without getting into the whole carb thing …
Have you considered whether appetite is really the issue, or if stress or boredom are driving you to eat?
Try drinking a big glass of water and waiting 1/2 an hour to see if you’re still hungry. Don’t just sit there watching the fridge while you wait, get involved in something (and not a 1/2 hour TV show).
If you’re craving something, eat a reasonable portion of that something. Don’t start with carrot sticks then work your way through everything else in the house before satisfying that craving for chocolate.
Pay attention to high fructose corn syrup. There are some indications this may give you the calories but not the satiety. (I am also not a dietician).
Ouch! Right in the hyperbole!
Budget. when you have no money to spend on food you’ll learn to deal with the hunger pangs… eventually.
Exercise.
A good workout can really curb the appetite - next time you have the munchies go for a walk instead.
Water works great for physical hunger, sometimes it’s not a physical thing though. Some people’s mouths get hungry (similar to the munchies), some people eat when they’re bored or depressed, a few people even eat when something is presented to them in a suggestive way like commercials. You are probably aware of these things, but it sometimes helps to keep them in mind when you have a craving.
If I’m actually hungry, I tear into a bag of mini carrots. I feel no guilt, and the texture, flavor and, nutrient value are all quite satisfying.
Now, this may not last for a long time. I’m pretty sure, if you enter into the bait business, specializing in fly maggots, your appetite will fall right off. As I said, you may become inured to it, but, boy, what a drop on the charts. :eek: Oh, yeah, learn how to make red and yellow maggots. What? You don’t want to know that part? Do you want to lose weight, or not?
In America, our dietary habits are almost entirely separate from nutritional realities. We don’t eat when we are hungry, we eat when we get the social cue to eat. In fact, most of us never actually get hungry. We just get an urge to eat that is behaviorally induced by habit, and social convention.
If you want to change your dietary habits, treat them as habits, and go to the source. Eliminate all the social factors in your diet. Don’t use meals as social occasions. Don’t associate love and food. Don’t associate reward and eating. Eat according to a schedule. If you feel that you cannot follow a strict diet, fine, write yourself a generous diet. Put it down in portions, and times, and eliminate all other eating in your life. Now fill in the rest of your schedule with behaviors incompatible with eating. Even if you are on 4500 calories a day when you start, eventually, you will modify the reasons why you eat.
Then you can plan a real diet. Not a diet to accomplish a limited term weight change, but rather, a diet to provide you with the nutrition you need, over your entire life. Don’t talk about it, or celebrate it with your associates. Lie when asked if you are loosing weight, or dieting. Don’t discuss your weight with anyone, except a doctor, or one or two specifically chosen close associates who understand that you are trying to alter the most fundamental set of human behaviors of all, and it is going to be very hard. You spent your entire life getting where you are now. The plan to change that will have to last the rest of your life. And it isn’t really an important aspect of who you are as a person. It’s just maintenance.
Examine your entire metabolic routine. When you eat, sleep, and engage in physical activity in a balanced and useful way, your weight will moderate, unless you have a specific metabolic disease. When your emotional state is based on other aspects than food, you will be able to relegate food to an appropriate importance in your life. Actual hunger will be an appropriate cue to eat. It will not be a nagging influence, unrelated to any genuine need.
Tris
(text removed from quotes)
I agree with the thrust of your statement. I’m still struggling with the “eat according to a schedule” part. Seems contradictory to me. Not trying to be an ass, but what do you mean?
Oh, and 13!!! Sorry, had to do it.
How about looking through a book of crime-scene photos? Or browsing any number of gruesome photo websites? (I’d link to an example or two, but…the Mods might make me into glue.)
That should leave a person unwilling to eat for a little while. Eh?
Ranchoth
(Or you could find some Ayds candy, which was discontinued in the mid-80s, for some reason.)
“Vegetable” in “vegetable oil” means plants, as opposed to animal fat. They mostly come from seeds, fruits and beans, like soy, olives, rapeseed, and sunflower seeds.
Although you are correct that common vegetables are not literally 100% carb.
This question is better suited to IMHO. I’ll move it.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
I would go along with what Triskadecamus says with one difference. Split up your allocated food into 5 or 6 portions for eating during the day and eat only when you are hungry. Do not allow yourself to become ravenous. If you had a scale like 1 - stuffed to the gills 2 - comfortably full 3 - not hungry 4 - slightly hungry 5 - could eat a horse; then try to time your meals/snacks for when you will be at about 4. Largely this will conform with the idea of a schedule but don’t eat it if you aren’t somewhat hungry.
I tried Hoodia: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/2947810.stm
The problem is that although it definitely decreased my appetite, it gave me a headache and stomach cramps. I didn’t take the recommended dose, but 2 capsules a day. By the third day I felt sated, even when I was eating my usual 1200 calories, which usually leaves me starving, the story of my life. My stomach would feel empty but I wasn’t hungry. A different feeling. I stopped taking it because of the side-effects. I know with prescribed drugs I’ve taken, there can be side-effects, sometimes quite drastic, but after a couple of weeks they pass. Maybe the Hoodia would be the same.